The human shoulder did not evolve for weight-bearing stability. It evolved for mobility—you use your upper limbs to reach up and back behind you to pluck a banana off a tree, not to support your body’s weight.

…Unless you practice inversions in a yoga class. Inversions ask the shoulder to become a weight-bearing structure, something it didn’t evolve to do. 

Understanding shoulder anatomy and function is essential for sequencing toward yoga inversions and can also enable us to help students who are challenged by inversions.

In this workshop, we’ll cover:

• The bony structures of the shoulder joint and shoulder girdle

• Some key shoulder muscles that facilitate or impede an inversion practice

• Essential shoulder mechanics as they relate to positions the shoulder takes in inversions

After a lecture and slide presentation, we’ll apply what we’ve learned in an inversion-themed asana practice.